Alcoholism: etiologies proposed and therapeutic approaches tried

Alcohol, probably the most popular mood-altering drug, has frightening consequences when abused. Genetic factors and sociocultural influences contribute to alcoholic behavior. Study of endocrines, neurotransmitters, and neuropeptides may reveal biological markers to help identify those at risk for alcoholism. Drinking patterns are often based on the expectation of alcohol's mood-altering quality. The focus of treatment has expanded to include not only drinking behavior but also emotional, social, and vocational adjustment. Controlled drinking has proved effective for some, so that complete abstinence is no longer the sole goal of therapy. Behavioral, martial, group and individual, outpatient and inpatient therapy, and drugs as adjuncts, all help some alcoholics, but none is a cure for all. Answers still lag behind questions but researchers have registered some advances that challenge therapists to enlarge therapeutic approaches to fit the multifaceted picture of alcoholism.     

RELIGION AS UNIVERSAL: TRIBULATIONS OF AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ENTERPRISE

Abstract. The English term religion is used to refer to local Christian churches, their organizations, and their practices. Nevertheless, Western anthropologists have tried to utilize it as if it were a technical term with universal applicability. Anthropologists have sought to characterize religion by several dichotomies, although their own field researches have revealed the irrelevance of such dichotomies as well as the fact that non-Western peoples do not recognize an entity equivalent to religion. Were the characteristics used by anthropologists in defining religion precisely applied to Western societies, then several other kinds of organizations, ceremonials, and practices would have as much, or even greater, claim to being included within the rubric of religion as the Christian and allied churches. The consequence of this conceptual imprecision has been the theoretical stagnation noted by eminent theorists.     

Retinal locus and the letter-span error function

The effect of retinal locus on the letter-span error function was investigated by requiring Ss to fixate at the left, middle, or right of lines of letters presented for 100 msec. Stimulus presentations consisted of lines of eight letters presented across the visual field, and lines of four letters presented alternately in the left and right visual hemifields. Locus of fixation and relative letter position were found to be significantly related to whether or not a letter was correctly localized. A significant interaction between locus of fixation and letter position was observed.     

Redistributing control between the elements of a compound stimulus

Twenty-eight pigeons were given discrimination training. Four groups were run in which for 0, 2, 4 and 9 sessions of training colour was an irrelevant cue and tone was relevant. Generalization tests were given in extinction; the training colour (C₁) and another colour (C₂) were presented with tone (T) and noise (N). Responding to these four stimulus combinations, TC₁, TC₂, NC₁ and NC₂, allowed the assessment of control by colour and tone. A reduction of control by colour and an increase in control by tone were found to be positively related to the amount of training with colour irrelevant. Tests showed a strong inverse relationship between control by colour and tone.     

The effect of a fading procedure upon the acquisition of control by an overshadowed auditory feature

Pigeons' key-pecking responses were reinforced in the presence of a compound stimulus that consisted of an auditory feature (a tone) and a visual feature (a light) and non-reinforced in the presence of a compound stimulus that was either a noise and a dark key, or noise and a light. In the condition where reinforcement trials differed from non-reinforcement trials on the basis of both auditory and visual features, the tone exerted very little control over responding on test. In the condition where reinforcement differed from non-reinforcement trials solely on the basis of the auditory features, an abrupt and a gradual introduction of the visual feature of the negative stimulus, a light, were compared for their effect upon control in the compounds. The tone acquired strong control in both cases. Evidence indicated that the tone had acquired control in the gradual condition without the occurrence of responses to the negative stimulus. An incidental finding was that when the negative stimulus consisted of a noise and a light, which was introduced abruptly, responding over the light dimension with tone, on test, was peaked at a point other than that light value used as positive and negative during training.     

Generalization gradients and stimulus control in delayed matching-to-sample

Neurological patients were subjects in delayed visual matching-to-sample. The sample and choice stimuli were ellipses of varying size. By measuring the difference in size between the sample on a given trial and the ellipse the subject chose on that trial, gradients of differences between samples and choice stimuli could be plotted. These difference gradients broadened with increasing delays. Sharp gradients were controlled by the samples. Flat gradients were controlled by features of the choice display, independently of the samples. Intermediate gradients reflected combined control by the samples and by the choice displays.     

Prior stimulation and the perception of causality

An attempt was made to discover whether, in conditions similar to those of Michotte, the number of causal responses given by subjects was influenced by stimulation during the period just before the main experiment. Time-intervals between the arrival of object A and the departure of object B were systematically varied within the range 60 to 390 msec. Those who had earlier been exposed to shorter time-intervals (60 to 210 msec.) gave fewer causal responses than those who had been exposed to longer ones (150 to 300 msec. and 240 to 390 msec.). A possible explanation is offered in terms of the modification of existing “schemata.”     

Several methods for teaching serial position sequences to monkeys

Three keys were available for monkeys to press. The objective was to teach the animals to press the keys in sequences up to 10 members in length. With fading procedures, a light that cued the correct key at a given serial member of the sequence faded out slightly each time the animal selected it, and became slightly brighter after the animal made an error at that sequence member. The correct keys were faded out, starting from the end of the sequence and proceeding toward the beginning. With control procedures, the cue lights were turned off suddenly, rather than being faded gradually. In almost every instance, the animals learned a longer series of unlighted key positions with the fading procedures than they did when each key-light was turned off suddenly. Also, requiring the animals to press a series of keys cued by lights before they could reach the sequence members they were to learn hampered them in learning the later serial members. By using several different sequences, it was possible to replicate these findings within the individual animal.     

Relational perception and modes of perceiver operation

Judgments were made of the size of a small, luminous (inner) square appearing in the center of a somewhat larger, variable (outer) square, the whole pattern appearing in the dark. Accuracy of judgment was greatest when the outer square was constant from trial to trial but deteriorated when the outer square also varied in size, reaching a lower limit less than the accuracy produced under the absolute judgment condition (no outer square presented). An application of multiple discriminant analysis and the use of a maximum likelihood observer model provided estimates of the extent to which Os responded to inner and outer size variation as separate aspects of stimulation. Although Os differed markedly in this respect, their ability to identify inner square size under the various conditions did not reflect this difference.